Elements of matter, which are made of smaller particles of matter, however, are restricted in how fast they can move, and do not inherently travel at any particular speed as electromagnetic particles do.

These thoughts were sifting through my head this morning, when I began to ponder a question that many, if not every human being within a first world country, has wondered. Is time travel possible? And, by the laws of the universe, can I travel both forwards and backwards in time?

Struggling with the immense problem of answering these questions for myself, with my limited understanding of particle physics and physics in general, I began to devise a way of viewing light speed, as well as faster than light speed.

I believe that we often forget that light is matter like all things within the universe, which defiles our view of complex problems like those that I was attempting to answer for myself.

If we view everything as matter, then the entire problem becomes (to my monkey-brain) a lot simpler.

If the light source is to the left of the diagram, then the photons closer to the left are "newer" photons.

Using this method of thinking, the problems in my head became a lot clearer.

Problem 1

If an object, besides these photons, was to travel as fast as the speed of light, it would exist around the same photons for however long it was traveling this speed (in this view, there must be a very small amount of space between photons). Thus, if this object were human and had eyes, it would see nothing, because the eyes of the human would not be able to receive the light (because it is traveling as fast as the light). Thus, I can conclude that,at light speed, you would see nothing. And, after traveling the speed of light, you would be in the exact same time period you were before your travel began, because, once you slowed down, all of the photons that were originally behind you will come at once into your eyes.

Here comes the tricky part of this particular problem, how this object would look to an outside observer.

If this object is traveling at the speed of light, then new light cannot reach reach the object, thus light cannot be absorbed and reflected by this object. Thus, an outside observer would be unable to see the object, because light cannot reflect off of the object. Through this, I can safely assume that once the speed of light is met, an object, to the outside observer, will disappear.

Problem 2

Now, if a human were traveling near the speed of light, there would still be a flow of photons into his or her eyes, however, the rate at which new light comes into his or her eyes would be slower than if he or she were stationary, and the photons (or waves) would be spaced apart and separated by a greater length than they would normally. Thus, I can conclude that, at near light speed, you would see time slow down (because time is only based on reference, thus, if reference slows as in the case of a slower refresh rate of photons, time does too).

Here comes the tricky part.

Since the object is traveling at near light speed (say, for the sake of example, 99% light speed), then light would be able to catch up and reflect off of this object, but it would take a decent amount of time. Light would take a decent amount of time to (catch up) to the object, because the object's position is further away than the position of the photon at its original source. Thus, the photon, since the object is traveling at 99% C, will have to catch up the object traveling 1% the speed of light, and then travel back to the observer once reflected. Thus, in this perspective, I can conclude that the outside observer would see the the object's time slow down, because many photons would reach the object at 1% light speed (from the perspective of the object traveling at the speed of light), and then travel back at light speed. So, if this object were to slow down, you would see the object begin to speed up, rapidly, until the object reaches 0 velocity.

Thus, both observers observe each other as slowed in time, because relative to each other, they are both traveling at 99% the speed of light.

If a conscious being were to travel fasterthan the speed of light, he would see the photons that are traveling in front of themselves, thus, he would begin to see time unwind, because he is viewing older light, that would be otherwise unreachable, while seeing himself in the process.

I see physically existing in the past like this:
To not create a paradox, and affect your own timeline, you have to travel to a congruent alternate universe, assuming there are infinite universes, and your chance of finding and congruent one is infinity over infinity.

Confusing yet? Let me explain:
If there are infinite universes that means there are infinite versions of a universe, surrounded by infinite versions of other timelines.
(Imagine an pie chart. The pie chart has infinite units as a whole., and there are infinite slices of the pie, and each slice equals infinity. Confusing, right?)
If there are infinite variations of infinity, that means you have an infinity in infinity chance to meet a congruent universe.
Now that you have found this congruent, you must select what time you will enter. You can't go before the time you entered into that exact universe unless you found ANOTHER congruent universe. You can only travel forwards from the time you entered, but you can safefully change time without creating a paradox. Once you want to make a change EARLIER in time, you have to find the edited congruent's congruent.
But you can never go back to your exact original universe.